NFIRS 5.0 Coding Questions and Answers A …

1 Office of Education and Data Management Division of Fire and Building Services State of Connecticut Department of Construction Services NFIRS Coding Questions and Answers A Reference Guide 2 2 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY BLANK 3 3 FORWARD The following information details frequently asked Coding Questions and Answers and as a combined reference guide for all NFIRS Users. It contains information from the October 2008 NFIRS Coding Issues and Problem Solving class and the November 2003 NFIRS Coding Issues class. This information is presented to assist you in preparing your incident reports 4 4 GENERAL Questions If a fire department is cancelled while en-route to an incident does the entire Basic Module have to be completed?

2 It is not necessary to complete blocks G2, H2, H3, I, or J. Should incident reports be generated for a fire department training exercise? Incident reports should not be submitted for training exercises unless there is a fire service casualty at the training exercise. An EMS incident report would be created in the system and the casualty would be treated as if the department responded to the EMS. A fire department responds to a call for power lines down and upon arrival finds the wires to be telephone or cable wires. What is the Incident Code? The department reports based on what it finds, not what it is dispatched to. Therefore, this is a good intent call and should be coded as 600 Good intent, other . Should we use Incident Code 621 Wrong location when we are unable to find an incident scene that we were dispatched to? Yes, Incident Code 621 Wrong location would be an appropriate code to use in the situation described.

3 Can Incident Type 300 be used for an incident where an EMS module will be used? No, validation rules will not allow it. Some 300 series Incident Types will not allow the EMS module to be used, such as 340 series. One solution is to select a specific EMS type incident rather than the generic Incident Type 300. An individual set fire to a paper towel in a department store and held it up to a sprinkler head. The sprinkler activated, transmitting an alarm, causing the fire department to respond. What Incident Code should be used for this situation? The fire was not a hostile fire. The fire was controlled and used as device to set off the sprinkler. The incident is not a fire. Incident Code is 700-Malicious false call, other is the appropriate code to use in this situation. A fire department responds to a motor vehicle accident with reported injuries. Upon arrival, department personnel evaluate each victim and find no injuries.

4 How would the Incident Type and Action Taken be coded? The Incident Type could be a 463-Vehicle accident, general cleanup or 600-Good intent, other depending on the situation. The Actions Taken would reflect what was done and could include 31-Checking for injuries , 45-Removing hazard , or 86-Investigation . A fire department is notified six weeks after the fact of the following case. It appears that an elderly woman was cooking. Her clothes catch fire and she is burned. A male companion comes to visit, finds her on the floor, badly burned, and takes her to the 5 5hospital. She is then transferred to the burn center where she died. There was no response by fire department, police, or EMS. Because there was no fire department response, there was no incident to report. On an airplane fire incident, is the owner information supposed to reflect the owner of the vehicle (airplane), or the property where the airplane sits?

5 Owner information is for the aircraft. With a vehicle fire incident, is the owner listed on the Basic Module, Block K2, the owner of the property or the owner of the vehicle? The owner listed is the owner of the vehicle. If a non-owner is driving the vehicle, then that person is entered in the Person/Entity Involved field. If the vehicle fire extends to other property, then information on the owner of the other property is captured on an Exposure Report. Does the Basic Module ( NFIRS -1) need to be completely filled out when the fire department responds to an EMS call? If the Incident Type is 321-EMS call , the Basic Module ( NFIRS -1) must be completed. This includes all sections. Listing the name of the person involved is a local option. Should the firefighter casualty count on the Basic Module, Block H1, include only firefighters injured during fire? No. All firefighter injuries are to be reported regardless of what type of incident they occurred at.

6 Remember to also complete a Firefighter Casualty Form ( NFIRS -5) for each firefighter casualty. How are resources defined in the Basic Module (G1)? The total number of fire department personnel and apparatus (suppression, EMS, other) that responded to the incident. This includes all fire and EMS personnel assigned to the incident whether they arrived at the scene or were cancelled before arrival. How is the location of an incident indicated when Directions or Intersection is selected in the Basic Module (B)? When either Directions or Intersection is selected for the location of an incident, one street name should be entered on the Street or Highway line, and the directions or cross-street should be entered on the Cross-Street or Directions line. If this procedure isn t followed, the incident will be invalid. What is a good definition of Actions Taken (Basic F) code 92-Standby ?

7 Could this be used for personnel waiting in a staging area? This is any time department personnel have been dispatched but instead of responding, are standing by for deployment. It can be used for personnel waiting in a staging area. 6 6 When a fire department is involved in some type of community service, parade patrol for example, and personnel/equipment are being used, what code best reflects what they are doing? The code that bests reflects the activity in this case is 553 Public service. Excludes service to governmental agencies (551 or 552) . I have departments that are overusing plus-one Coding on their incidents. How can a department further define their actions taken without using a plus-one code on the actual Action Taken code? For example, a fire department responds to an EMS call. The action taken is to provide ALS. They want to capture the fact that their medic went with the ambulance to the hospital.

8 Is it possible that they can capture this information by using the apparatus/personnel module instead of using a plus-one code? The current system does not have a method to capture the fact that their medic went with the ambulance to the hospital. An apparatus arrives at the scene but is cancelled before personnel exit the vehicle. How should this be coded? The incident should still be coded as a 611 - Dispatched and canceled en route. Incident cleared or canceled prior to arrival of the responding unit . If a unit arrives on the scene, fill out the applicable code. A fire department responded to a reported motor vehicle accident at a specific location, did not find the accident at the location, but continued on and found the accident at a different location. Should the location be reported as the initial address or the final address? The location documented should be location where the vehicle was found.

9 A fire department was called to a pipe bomb in a mailbox incident. The department did not remove or disarm the explosive, but called the police. How should this be coded? The appropriate Incident Code in this case would be 552 Police matter . This includes incidents where fire department is called to a scene that should be handled by the police. How would you code a shooting incident? If they were providing aid, they were told to complete a mutual aid report. What should their Actions Taken be standby or incident command? If the departments responded on the call as mutual aid, then they should complete a mutual aid report for an EMS incident. If all they did was standby, then their actions taken should be standby. How would a call created in error from dispatch be coded? The call has no address or unit to assign. The call is simply a miss-typed key that creates a skipped run number.

10 It seems that if it is coded as a canceled call it will skew statistics. What should be done? 7 7 It's not a call and an incident report should not be generated. What would the code for Landing Zone Helicopter be? The Incident Code is 462-Aircraft standby . This includes routine standby for takeoff and landing as well as emergency alerts at airports. Should a fire department document dollar loss for non-fire incidents such as motor vehicle accidents or hazmat incidents? Dollar loss should be documented for fire incidents (100 series) only. It is an estimate of the total pre-incident value for the property and property contents in terms of replacement of the damaged items and property. This estimation of the fire loss includes contents damaged by fire, smoke, water, and overhaul. This does not include indirect loss, such as business interruption, nor does it include the cost of hazardous material removal.